One year?! Man, I don't even know where to begin figuring out where the last 365 days have gone! This past weekend has truly been a milestone for Mark and I, most especially for me.

First of, we celebrated our 1 year engagement anniversary yesterday (November 27)  while celebrating Mark's mom's birthday. With the way things are going, October 12, 2012 will be here in no time! =)

Secondly, our hall called for us to book an appointment for our food tasting! We found out that we are able to bring other people to the tasting as well - a pleasant surprise! Apparently this is the time when Mark and I should be pigging out because on the day of our wedding, we most likely will not be able to eat. LOL! They will be serving us all of our courses from start to finish! Eeeeee!! So excited!! Got to remember to wear jogging pants for some extra room. He he ...

Lastly, what really made this weekend so wonderful for me was what had happened at the Youth Servants Retreat. To make a long story short, by God's grace, I was able to finally put behind things from my past and finally be at peace. You can never truly appreciate the grace of forgiveness until you have forgiven and have been forgiven.

I can't thank God enough for all that He has blessed Mark and I this past year. He has answered each and every one of our prayers. Especially when we think it's not possible, God always finds a way to make it possible. He truly is LOVE.

Here's a song that really stuck to me this weekend. This truly is the first day of the rest of my life. =)

Have a great week!

-Lene

YAAAAY!!! Ha! Ha! We have completed our Pre-Marriage Preparation Course! =) The last six weeks was fun overall. We learned tons of things that will be very helpful to our relationship now and after we get married.

It was hard at times because the class was in Mississauga (about an hour away from where I live) and four out of the six classes were pouring rain! It was literally like driving into clouds the whole time - zero visibility. That part wasn't fun at all.

The funny thing is, there were actually two dates that this course was available for us to take. One was this Fall and the other was in the Spring of next year. I figured if we attended the Spring course, it will for sure be raining. So we chose the Fall instead. Boy was I wrong! It just proves that you can't always control everything.

So now we can check another thing off our list! =)

With two other couples from the class.

-Lene

The more and more I am getting into all this planning, I am coming to an unfortunate conclusion ... as much as we would like to think that the wedding is OUR day, it really isn't.

It's more like a huge party that you and your FH are hosting. =(

You really have to compromise or "give-up" a bunch of the things you like in order to keep relationships in good shape.

*sigh* Who would have thought getting married was this complicated?

After talking to some very wise ladies who are going through the same issues as me, this is what I have learned:

"Learn to pick your battles. Don't sweat the small stuff."

(I think I may have said this to myself before? Or someone said this to me before?)

"But it all works out in the end and you will realize the stuff you are stressing about now won't matter to you the day of."

"I think we get so caught up in the "wedding" of it all (think Kim Kardashian) that we forget that it is all about what brought us to this point."

It is our day. I just have to keep my eyes on the goal, to be with each other forever. Here is a great line that I learned as well that could come in handy later on ... "I'll take your suggestions into consideration."

=)


-Lene

This is the first thing that I saw on my online checklist last night:



Eeeekkk!!! I have been telling myself for months now that I'm going to be serious about loosing weight and up until now, it was all talk and no action! LOL!

So this morning, I dragged myself out of bed and kept picturing the above reminder. The wedding is in less than 11 months, I have to get started!

That's it. Just wanted to blog about it to make it official. I now have a starting point, so I have to take this seriously. =)

-Lene

Today, I finally had the opportunity to go shopping with the girls to try on some bridesmaids dresses. A few months ago, I already went with 3 of them, but this time, we were complete (99% anyways, we were missing one girl).

The day started out great. I was pretty excited because at least most of them will be there. Then we can finally try on the dresses all at once and see how the whole group looks like. Being me, I did a bit of research online already for some of the styles that I thought the girls might like. So I came prepared. =)

When we got there, we were assigned a consultant to help us out. I told her that I already checked out the dresses online and have a list of the ones that we were interested in trying out. The main goal for this visit was really to just try on the dresses and see what works best for everyone. I didn't plan on purchasing anything yet, unless of course the girls were sure that it's what they really want. The wedding after all isn't for another 11 months.

Initially, our consultant was very helpful. She found all the dresses that we were wanting to try on and gave us a lot of suggestions. Near the end though, everything just went downhill.


My 1st Bridezilla Moment 

After we have settled on a style that we liked, I spoke to the girls about what they want to do. The Maids of Honour were happy with their dresses, so they were alright buying it already. But the rest of the girls were still wanting to loose weight and wanted to place the order next year instead when it's a little closer to the wedding. To me, this made sense. It doesn't make sense to buy a huge dress now only to have them altered later on. Then more money is wasted.

So I explained to our consultant that we may not be placing the order yet because some of the girls are still wanting to loose weight, etc. I explained to her my reasoning above about trying to save on the alterations. But then she kept on insisting to buy it now and just to get a bigger size. She's like, "You can always have it taken in." Obviously she didn't understand anything I explained to her. So I had to repeat it a few times. When I thought she finally understood me, she surprises me with this comment, "Well, if that's the case, then what's the point of coming in and trying them on?" (or something along those lines, I couldn't think straight after she said it). She pretty much told me that we wasted her time.

Alright, you guessed it! I blew up! In my mind, I was like, "WTF?" My mouth literally had verbal diarrhea. I exclaimed to her that the reason we came in was so that we can try on the dresses and see if it looks good or not. My wedding after all isn't until next October, so we do have some time. I re-explained to her the reason again why some of the girls didn't want to get it yet and how it really makes more sense that way. I asked her, "Isn't that right?" She then replies to me with, "Well, you're the customer..." OMG!! In my head I was like, "EXACTLY!! That's my point!! So what the heck!"

By this point, I didn't realize that I was fuming (all red and everything) and was screaming at her. My sister tells me to calm down. I didn't realize that some of the people were starting to look at us.

My two Maids of Honour were alright buying their dresses already, so the consultant went ahead and started getting their measurement. I was still fuming with anger! How dare she?! It's her freakin' job to help the customer. When we do place the orders for the other dresses, I was going to let them know that it was her who helped us so that she gets the commission. It just wasn't right for her to pretty much tell you in your face that we wasted her time. Which we didn't because we did find the dresses that we liked. But to say those things to get the customer to buy right then there was not right.

I work in retail and I know how customer service should be! In the end, my two MsoH ended up buying their dresses (I really didn't want them to yet because I was so mad), but they were really happy with the dress and did want to buy it already.

I just couldn't believe it! Arrggghh!!! I'm still fuming with anger as I sit her typing about it. Arrgghhh!! *deep breath* Let's just say that there's no way I will allow for us to have her as a consultant again. She just lost a pretty good commision!

*sigh* So yeah. It was fun, until that incident ruined it for me. I probably shouldn't have screamed at her, but I didn't realized I was doing it until it was happening. I just couldn't believe it. To tell a customer that?!

There is one positive outcome from all of it, the MsoH have their dresses already. =)

-Lene

Happy Wednesday! =) What a great Wednesday it is. The sun is out and it's supposed to climb up to 17 degrees today! A great improvement from the single digits we've been having just last week.

Just thought I would add this here. Finances or money in general is always something that everyone worries about and as much as we don't want to admit it's importance, it is. Especially in mine and Mark's situation. For those of you who have gotten married already, you all know how hard it is in the pocket to get married. It's reality and there's not much we can do about it. That's why I found this message from Rick Warren so inspiring.


“But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.” Deuteronomy 8:18 (NIV)

The Bible teaches that God is the source of our finances. He is the one who provides for our needs.

What does this mean? It means that, instead of looking to my employer for financial security, I look to God. It means that, instead of looking at my savings account employer for financial security, I look to God. It means that I don’t look to anyone or anything other than God to provide for my needs.

Let me illustrate it this way: When I turn on the water, I know the water doesn’t actually come from the faucet. The water comes through the faucet. The water is actually from a reservoir, and the way I happen to receive it is through the faucet.

In the same way, the income that God wants to give you may come through a job or through something or someone else.

But the source is always God.

We don’t need to worry about which faucet God uses to supply our needs. In a sense he says, “If I turn off one faucet, I can just as easily turn on another. If you lose one job, I can give you another. I am your source, not your job. I am your source, not your bank account.”

Worry reveals the places where you are not trusting God. Ask God to help you understand what causes you to not trust him, and ask him to teach you to start trusting him. Look for how he does that. In addition, when you start to worry, talk to God about your concerns.


Hope this helped brightened your day in some way.

-Lene